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Background: The use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time-of-flight mass spectra (MALDI-TOF MS) with machine learning (ML) has been explored for predicting antimicrobial resistance. This study evaluates the effectiveness of MALDI-TOF MS paired with various ML classifiers and establishes optimal models for predicting antimicrobial resistance and the presence of mecA gene among Staphylococcus aureus., Materials and Methods: Antimicrobial resistance against tier 1 antibiotics and MALDI-TOF MS of S. aureus were analysed using data from the Database of Resistance against Antimicrobials with MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (DRIAMS) and one medical centre (CS database). Five ML classifiers were used to analyse performance metrics. The Shapley value quantified the predictive contribution of individual features., Results: The LightGBM demonstrated superior performance in predicting antimicrobial resistance for most tier 1 antibiotics among oxacillin-resistant S. aureus (ORSA) compared with all S. aureus and oxacillin-susceptible S. aureus (OSSA) in both databases. In DRIAMS, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) was associated with excellent predictive performance, expressed as accuracy/AUROC/AUPR, for clindamycin (0.74/0.81/0.90), tetracycline (0.86/0.87/0.94), and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (0.95/0.72/0.97). In the CS database, Ada and Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) showed excellent performance for erythromycin (0.97/0.92/0.86) and tetracycline (0.68/0.79/0.86). Mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) features of 2411-2414 and 2429-2432 correlated with clindamycin resistance, whereas 5033-5036 was linked to erythromycin resistance in DRIAMS. In the CS database, overlapping features of 2423-2426, 4496-4499, and 3764-3767 simultaneously predicted the presence of mecA and oxacillin resistance., Conclusion: The predictive performance of antimicrobial resistance against S. aureus using MALDI-TOF MS depends on database characteristics and the ML algorithm selected. Specific and overlapping mass spectra features are excellent predictive markers for mecA and specific antimicrobial resistance., Competing Interests: Declarations Funding: This project was supported by Chung Shan Medical University (grant number: CSMUH No:CS1-23228). This funding source played no role in study design or conduct, data collection, analysis or interpretation, writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Competing interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this study. Ethical approval: CSMUH No. CS1-23228 of Chung Shan Medical University and REC112-51 of Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital). Sequence information: Not applicable., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd and International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.)

Background: Patients with invasive infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), especially those with an elevated minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of vancomycin (VA), are likely to have treatment failure and poor outcomes. The aim of this study was to delineate and correlate the genotypes and phenotypes of clinical VA-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) from invasive infections in Taiwan., Methods: Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 670 non-duplicate MRSA isolates were collected from patients with invasive infections, mostly from blood, as part of a nationwide antimicrobial surveillance program named Tigecycline in vitro Surveillance in Taiwan. Among them, 10 (1.5%) VISA (VA MIC = 4 mg/L) isolates were identified. Molecular typing with staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), multilocus sequence typing, staphylococcal protein A (spa), mec-associated hypervariable region (dru), accessory gene regulator (agr), and pulse-field gel electrophoresis, and phenotypic analysis including antibiotic susceptibility testing, gene encoding Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl), and superantigenic toxin profiles, were analyzed., Results: All but one isolate was defined as molecular health-care-associated MRSA: 6 as SCCmecIII-ST239-spa t037-agrI-dru7 (1 isolate) and dru14 (5 isolates), 2 as SCCmecII-ST5-spa t586-agrII-dru4, and one as SCCmecII-ST89-spa t3520-agrIII-dru7. One isolate was defined as SCCmecIV-ST59-spa t437-agrI-dru8, which was categorized as molecular community-associated MRSA. Five pulsotypes were identified; only one had a positive D-test and 3 were insusceptible to daptomycin (MIC ≧1 mg/L). Five isolates possessed sea-selk-selq, among them 4 belonged to SCCmecIII-ST239-spa t037-agrI., Conclusion: In this study, VISA was rarely isolated from invasive MRSA infections, and most cases harbored limited genotypes and corresponding phenotypes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None declared., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This study investigated the risk of insomnia and hypnotics use among emergency physicians. This cross-sectional study recruited physicians working in Taiwanese hospitals in 2015 and the general population as the participants. Data from 1,097 emergency physicians obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database were grouped into the case group, whereas 14,112 nonemergency physicians and 4,388 people from the general population were categorized into the control groups. This study used logistic regression and conditional logistic regression to compare the risks of insomnia between emergency and nonemergency physicians and between emergency physicians and the general population, respectively. The prevalence of insomnia among emergency physicians, nonemergency physicians and general population was 5.56%, 4.08%, and 1.73%, respectively. Compared with nonemergency physicians and the general population, emergency physicians had a significantly higher risk of insomnia. The proportions of emergency physicians, nonemergency physicians, and general population using hypnotics were 19.96%, 18.24%, and 13.26%, respectively. Among emergency physicians who used hypnotics, 49.77%, 25.57%, and 24.66% used only benzodiazepines, only nonbenzodiazepines, and both benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines, respectively. Nonpharmacological interventions to improve insomnia and reminder of safe use of hypnotics to emergency physicians can serve as references for hospitals in developing health-promoting activities.

Using the claims data of one million insured residents in Taiwan from 1996-2013, this study identified 12,126 women in an urban city (Taichung) and 7229 women in a rural county (Yunlin), aged 20 and above. We compared Papanicolaou (Pap) test uses and cervical cancer detection rates between urban and rural women. Results showed that the Pap screening rate was slightly higher in rural women than in urban women (86.1 vs. 81.3 percent). The cervical cancer incidence was much greater for women without Pap test than women with the test (35.8 vs. 9.00 per 1000 in rural women and 20.3 vs. 7.00 per 1000 in urban women). Nested case-control analysis showed that Pap test receivers had an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.35 (95% CI = 0.25-0.51) to be diagnosed with cervical cancer as compared to those who did not receive the test. The rural women had an adjusted OR of 1.46 (95% CI = 1.03-2.06) to be diagnosed with cervical cancer as compared to urban women. In conclusion, women in rural area are at higher cancer risk than city women. Women who do not undergo Pap tests deserve timely intervention of Pap test to prevent the onset of cancer, particularly in rural women with low income.

Introduction: The risk factors for systemic autoimmune diseases (SAD) in gastric disease patients with proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use are still unclear. This study discussed this relationship in an Asian population., Methods: Patients without a prior history of SAD were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2010. Cox regression models were applied to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval [CI] of SAD. The cumulative PPI dosage was stratified by quartiles of defined daily doses and adjusted for baseline disease risk score which served as the primary variables compared against no PPI use., Results: We analyzed the data of 51,291 participants aged 18 years or older and free of SAD at baseline. PPI users (n = 17,938) had a significantly increased risk of SAD over non-PPI users. There was a significantly higher risk of developing SAD in older age groups. A significant dose-dependent association was observed between cumulative PPI use and the risk of SAD. Female PPI users had significantly higher risk of developing SAD. In patients who received PPI, the autoimmune disease with significantly higher incidence was Sjögren syndrome (SjS) (adjusted HR [aHR] 1.82, 95% CI, 1.02-3.27) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (aHR, 2.19, 95% CI, 1.19-4.01)., Conclusion: This study found PPI users to be associated with an increased risk of SAD. Older age or cumulative PPI use was significantly associated with SAD, and the highest incidence was SjS and RA among gastric disease patients who received PPI. Key Points • This nationwide long-term cohort study found PPI users to be associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren syndrome in Taiwan. • This finding may help with clinical risk evaluation and will inform further investigation of the pathogenesis between autoimmune diseases and PPI use.

Objective: This study compared Taiwanese public health insurance outpatient reimbursements for interstitial cystitis (IC)/bladder pain syndrome (BPS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment., Methods: This observational study used data from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database between 2002 and 2013. Patients with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes for IC/BPS and RA were selected and matched in a ratio of 1 : 5 based on index year. After adjustment for possible confounders, including age, sex, income, hospital levels of care, and reimbursements for 24 comorbidities, yearly and per-visit pharmacy, non-pharmacy, and total claims were determined., Results: In all, 1438 IC/BPS and 7190 RA patients were identified in the database. IC/BPS patients were significantly younger, and the proportion of females in this group was higher. Income levels were lower in the IC/BPS cohort, but not significantly. There were no significant differences between cohorts in terms of reimbursements for treatment for comorbidities, with the exception of end-stage renal disease, for which reimbursement was higher in the RA cohort. After adjusting for confounders, the regression coefficient for IC/BPS to RA was significantly lower for yearly total pharmacy claims, yearly total claims, per-visit pharmacy claims, and total claims per visit., Conclusions: Outpatient reimbursement was significantly lower for IC/BPS than for RA treatment, primarily with regard to pharmacy costs. This indicates less medical utilization for IC/BPS, possibly due to poor treatment outcomes and copayment polices. Further advances in the treatment of IC/BPS and health budget reallocation are encouraged., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

In clinical practice, some atrial fibrillation (AF) patients were classified as having low and moderate stroke risk by the CHADS 2 score (≤ 1) in 2001 but in 2012 they were not truly classified as low risk of stroke according to the CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score (≥ 2) (defined gray zone). Therefore, a treatment gap exists in gray zone AF patients. This study aimed to evaluate whether gray zone AF patients could benefit from reduced all-cause mortality under antithrombotic treatment. This was a longitudinal cohort study performed using data from claim forms submitted to the Taiwan Bureau of National Health Insurance from January 2000 to December 2011. The new-onset AF patients consisted of a gray zone cohort with a total of 1237 patients being enrolled. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality between 2001 and 2011. Patients in the gray zone receiving antithrombotic treatment had a significant reduction in all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR): 0.21; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.16-0.28] compared with the no treatment group [warfarin only: HR, 0.28 (95% CI, 0.15-0.52); warfarin + Aspirin: HR, 0.21 (95% CI, 0.15-0.30); and Aspirin only: HR, 0.22 (95% CI, 0.16-0.29) ]. All-cause mortality was notably increased when any of the following risk factors were present: age 65-74 years, age ≥ 75 years, chronic kidney disease, and vascular disease. We concluded that AF patients in the gray zone must receive either anticoagulant and/or antiplatelet treatment and there is a lower mortality in these groups during long-term follow-up. Further investigation is needed to observe whether the antithrombotic drugs have benefits for patients with AF with a CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score < 2.

Background: Asians with atrial fibrillation carry a higher risk of ischemic stroke than non-Asians even under treatment of nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants. The purpose of the study was to observe the feasibility of intravenous thrombolytic therapy after administering a reversal agent, idarucizumab, in dabigatran-treated patients with acute ischemic stroke in Taiwan., Methods: Dabigatran-treated patients with acute ischemic stroke who received intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) after idarucizumab reversal were enrolled in the retrospective nationwide study. The clinical data, treatment course, and outcomes were recorded. Stroke severity was evaluated using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. Any intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) after rt-PA was detected by neuroimaging studies., Results: Ten dabigatran-treated patients (6 men, mean age 71.10 ± 7.96 years) with acute ischemic stroke were included. Before stroke, the mean CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score was 4.50 ± 1.57 and 8 patients (80%) received dabigatran 110 mg twice daily. All patients were treated with 5 g idarucizumab, following which the activated partial thromboplastin time normalized. Intravenous rt-PA (mean dose .78 mg/kg) was initiated a mean time of 11.11 minutes after idarucizumab infusion. The NIHSS score improved significantly after thrombolysis (16.0 ± 6.67 at admission to 9.38 ± 4.75 at discharge, P = .016). ICH developed in 3 patients (30%). Two of them were asymptomatic and 1 patient suffered from symptomatic ICH leading to mortality., Conclusion: Our data reconfirmed the feasibility of intravenous rt-PA for Asian stroke patients after reversal of dabigatran effect with idarucizumab., (Copyright © 2018 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

As the world's population ages, the number of people receiving total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been on the rise. Although patients with diabetes mellitus are known to face greater risks of TKA postoperative infection and revision TKA owing to diabetic complications, studies on whether such patients' participation in pay for performance (P4P) programs influences the incidence rates of TKA postoperative infection or revision TKA are still lacking. This study examined the 2002-2012 data of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to conduct a retrospective cohort analysis of diabetic patients over 50 years old who have received TKA. To reduce any selection bias between patients joining and not joining the P4P program, propensity score matching was applied. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine the influence of the P4P program on TKA postoperative infection and revision TKA, and the results indicate that joining P4P lowered the risk of postoperative infection (HR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.77-1.08), however, which was not statistically significant, and significantly lowered the risk of revision TKA (HR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.39-0.72). Being younger and male, having multiple comorbid conditions or greater diabetic severity, receiving care at regional or public hospitals, and not having a diagnosis of degenerative or rheumatoid arthritis were identified as factors for higher risk of TKA postoperative infection for patients with diabetes. As for the risk of revision TKA, postoperative infection and being younger were identified as factors for a significantly higher risk (p < 0.05)., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Studies on second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) augmentation treatment for older adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) remain limited. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of SGA augmentation for overall and older patients with MDD inpatient history by assessing the change in 1-year hospitalization before and after SGA augmentation using the latest National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan., Methods: The samples were MDD patients (ICD-9 CM code: 296.2 and 296.3) who had psychiatric inpatient history. A total of 2602 MDD patients including 430 elderly subjects (age ≥ 60 years) who received SGA augmentation for 8 weeks between January 1998 and December 2012 were included in this 1-year mirror-image study. Outcome measures included number and length of psychiatric and all-cause hospitalizations., Results: After 8-week continuous SGA augmentation in the study subjects, the total number and days of psychiatric hospitalizations among overall patients reduced by 33.57% (p < .0001) and 18.24% (p < .0001), respectively; the total number and days of psychiatric hospitalizations among older patients (age ≥ 60) reduced by 44.52% (p < .0001) and 27.95% (p < .0001), respectively. Similarly, the total number and days of all-cause hospitalizations were significantly reduced., Limitations: MDD patients without inpatient history were not included due to data limitation; hence, the results may not be generalized to all patients., Conclusions: The results support that SGA may be effective in reducing psychiatric and all-cause hospitalization among overall and elderly MDD patients. More studies focusing on the safety of SGA among older MDD patients is warranted., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We investigated whether colonic diverticulosis (CD) is associated with an increased risk of the subsequent development of erectile dysfunction (ED).We identified 2879 patients, diagnosed with CD between 1998 and 2011 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database as the study cohort. Patients in a comparison cohort were frequency-matched with those in the CD cohort at a ratio of 1:4, frequency matched according to age (in 5-year bands) and year of CD diagnosis. The patients were followed-up until ED development, withdrawal from the National Health Insurance system, or the end of 2011. For both cohorts, the overall and age-specific incidence density rates of ED (per 1000 person-years) were calculated. The effects of age, CD, and other comorbidities on the risk of ED development were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression models.The average follow-up durations were 4.76 years and 4.97 years for the CD patients and comparison cohorts, respectively. The overall incidence of ED was 1.70-fold higher in the CD cohort than in the comparison cohort (2.92 and 1.71 per 1000 person-years, respectively). Colonic diverticulosis was an independent risk factor for subsequent ED development (adjusted HR [aHR] = 1.56, 95% confidence interval = 1.07-2.28) in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model.In this large retrospective cohort study, CD was associated with future ED development. Additional studies are required for validating our results., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Objective: Few studies have examined the relationship between gout and erectile dysfunction (ED). We investigated whether patients with gout exhibited an increased risk of ED., Methods: This longitudinal nationwide cohort study investigated the incidence and risk of ED in 19,368 men with gout who were newly diagnosed between January 2002 and December 2008. A total of 77,472 controls without gout were randomly selected from the general population and frequency-matched according to age and sex. The patients were followed up from the date on which they were included in the study cohort to the date of an ED event, censoring, or December 31, 2010. We conducted the Cox proportional hazard model to estimate the effects of gout on ED risk including age and comorbidities., Results: The gout cohort exhibited a 1.21-fold adjusted HR of subsequent ED development compared with the non-gout cohort (95% CI 1.03-1.44). The incidence of ED increased with age in both cohorts and was higher among the patients in the gout cohort than among those in the non-gout cohort. Compared to the patients without gout and comorbidities, the patients with both gout and any type of comorbidity exhibited a 2.04-fold risk of developing ED (95% CI 1.63-2.57). Further, the patients with gout who had numerous comorbidities exhibited the dose-response effect in developing ED., Conclusion: This nationwide cohort study revealed that ED risk is significantly higher in patients with gout than in the general population.

The association between type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and asthma remains controversial and has led to new interest in these 2 disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among young people with T1DM and asthma and offer a clinical demonstration of the balance between Th1 and Th2 responses.We conducted a retrospective cohort study by using data from the National Health Insurance (NHI) system of Taiwan. The cohort consisted of 3545 T1DM cases and 14,180 controls established during the 1998 to 2011 period. Of the 3545 T1DM patients, 55.1% were girls and 26.5% were in the age group <8 years.The overall incidence of asthma was 47% higher in the T1DM cohort than in the control cohort (6.49 vs 4.42 per 1000 person-y), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.34 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11-1.62). Moreover, T1DM patients who visited the emergency room (ER) more than twice for diabetes had a higher adjusted HR of 17.4 (95% CI = 12.9-23.6) of developing asthma. The adjusted HR of asthma was 38.6 (95% CI = 28.5-52.2) in T1DM patients who had been hospitalized more than twice for diabetes.We observed a significantly higher incidence of asthma in young patients with T1DM than in the general population. Among young people of T1DM with more ER visits or frequent hospitalization because of diabetes mellitus were associated with risk of asthma, may indicate that poor glycemic control significantly contributes to asthma risk.